WhatsApp can be used for surveillance: how to protect yourself

A British newspaper reported that Israeli-made software could be used to hack a popular application, they write “News of israel«.

Фото: Depositphotos

Hacking a popular Internet messaging program, WhatsApp allowed the implementation of an Israeli-made Pegasus online-monitoring program into the smartphones of people being monitored.

According to the report, WhatsApp discovered in early May that it was possible to exploit a "hole" in the application's software in order to install a tracking program on any type of smartphone, be it an iPhone or an Android phone.

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Pegasus is used to track a specific target. According to the manufacturer, the Israeli company NSO, this software is sold only to governments and for a very limited set of goals - such as to spy on people who are suspected of treason. However, it was repeatedly claimed in the past that this program was used by regimes in South America and the Middle East to persecute human rights activists. Cases of mass hacking of mobile phones using this software are unknown.

Фото: Depositphotos

The Pegasus program is embedded in the software of the phone that is being monitored, while the target himself is not aware of its presence. Pegasus records and photographs all correspondence of the victim, be it telephone conversations or chats, and transfers the finished files, including geotags, to the customer. Experts who checked the “hole” in the software claim that the program, among others, was supposed to monitor the phone of a British lawyer who took part in several lawsuits against the manufacturing company.

One of the plaintiffs was Omar Abdulaziz, a public figure from Saudi Arabia living in Canada. Abdul-Aziz was a friend of the murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Hashoghi. Abdul-Aziz claims that the NSO software helped the Saudi government to obtain information about the whereabouts of the murdered journalist and eliminate it.

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According to a newspaper report, the tracking program is embedded in the victim's phone using a WhatsApp phone call, even if the caller did not answer the call. The registration of such a call does not always remain in the phone’s memory, which makes it even more difficult to detect Pegasus in the device.

A potential investor in the company NSO said that one of the company's presentations claimed that even the newest cybersecurity tools could not be compared with the capabilities of Pegasus. Their software, the developer says, can detect new loopholes at any time.

WhatsApp urged users to install the latest version of the app and update their phone software to the latest version to protect against potential attacks. “We continually work with the best cybersecurity experts to provide optimal protection to our customers,” the company said.

NSO's response once again emphasizes that their software is sold only to governments and only for specific and limited purposes, one of which is the fight against terror. “The company investigates every reported use of the Pegasus program outside of the sales agreement,” NSO said in a statement.

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